Den cam progress & more Chapter 1
November 22, 2010 – 6:21PM CST
The engineers are making decisions and producer Doug Hajicek is targeting December 15 as the installation date for Lily and Hope’s den cam(s). Jason Sawyer is moving toward installation of Ted and Lucky’s den cam.
Meanwhile, snow keeps falling. It’s so overcast lately it looks like dusk all day.
Mikayla and her family finally got back to us while on vacation. Mikayla is the Colorado third-grader who told her classmates she wanted donations to the Bear Center instead of birthday presents. That prompted some of you to ask if you could send her a present, which is why we contacted Mikayla’s family. Here’s an excerpt from her father’s email.
“I mentioned the present to Mikayla and she suggested they donate to the bear center instead. You should get the envelope with the donations from Mikayla and her third grade classmates next week. Mikayla wanted to write at little note to you, Lynn, before we sent the donations. I think the fortuitous timing of having just watched your show, Lynn, and then meeting you a few days later made quite an impression on Mikayla. She has been passionate about bears for a few years now and imagines that she would like to study them as a wildlife biologist someday. Meeting a real life biologist made that dream seem just a little more possible. We have also been fortunate to have encountered several bears in the wild, including two grizzlies. They are indeed amazing animals to watch.”
We loved your story of putting 2-year-olds out in their snowsuits covered with thistle seeds so birds would land on them (comment on Nov 21 update). We must be kids at heart. We tried that ourselves a few years back and counted up to 17 pine siskins and goldfinches on a person at once. Bird-watching can be fun!
But there is no bear news, so it’s another story from Chapter 1:
Just when I was thinking I knew the bluff routine to expect with mothers and cubs, I ran into Old 812 in the summer of 1987. This 13-year-old didn’t show the usual bluster we knew to be harmless. When my field assistant Greg Wilker or I approached her, she’d put her ears back, come fast and low, and finally turn away with clacking jaws at little more than arms length. At first we stood our ground, but after realizing this was just another type of bluff, we wondered what would happen if we did other things.
We wondered how she would respond to aggressive behavior. Would she defend her cubs? When either of us ran toward Old 812 and her cubs, she ran to the nearest tree and started to climb.
Next, we wondered what would happen if we responded to a charge by running away. We knew how close she would come when we stood our ground. Would she dare come closer if we ran? I made a plan. Greg would do the running. Actually, I was sure there was no danger. As a U. S. Forest Service Research Scientist, I didn’t dare put anyone at serious risk for fear of the paperwork. Shortly, we saw 812 and her cubs in the bushes at the edge of a forest opening. I lay down with my camera. Greg provoked a charge, and ran past me within 3 feet with 812 at his heels so I could snap pictures of a charging bear from ground level. Then something happened. Greg glanced back at 812 and fell flat. What did 812 do? She did fancy athletics to avoid touching Greg as she braked and trotted back to her cubs.
812’s life ended that fall when a hunter shot her uneventfully from his tree stand. 812 left behind many stories, but in her 13 years of life she never touched anyone. The most aggressive bear we ever met turned out to be all bluff. In my 44 years of research (and counting), she was the only wild bear I met that had a habit of charging.
You can see videos of Old 812 in action at http://www.bear.org/website/bear-pages/black-bear/communication/63-how-dangerous-are-bluff-charges.html.
Thank you for all you are doing day after day.
Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center